The walk to Woop Slap house was a lively affair with Luffy constantly trying to get Naruto's attention whilst Naruto ignored him and in favor of talking with Makino.
"So, Naruto, where are you from?" Makino asked Naruto as they made their way to Woop Slaps house.
"Originally I was born on a secluded Island that continues to have harsh laws that prevent people from leaving the country. However, for most of my life I grew up in a Kingdom called Dressrosa." Naruto replied to Makino's question, turning to them after reminiscing he found that both Makino and Luffy were looking at Naruto with awe.
"That must have been amazing!" Luffy said with awe whilst Naruto nodded his head and smiled sadly in agreement. Makino noticing Naruto's reaction bumped his arm making Naruto look up.
"Well hopefully you'll be able to return, there must be some people waiting for you." Makino smiled trying to cheer up Naruto.
"Yeah, hopefully" Naruto repeated.
"What else have you done before Naruto?" Luffy questioned, curious to find out more about Naruto. "Surely you've been on great adventures?"
"I've mainly spent most of my time trying to find answers which is the reason I hope to talk to this Woop Slap" Naruto said as they came to the end of another street and rounded the corner.
"Who would be looking for me?" A man called up from the porch of a house slightly up the road. The man who had called out was wearing a bucket hat, had a goatee and held a cane in his hand.
"Woop Slap, Naruto hear is looking for a woman he said use to live here." Makino said as they got closer.
"Her name was Monkey D. Kushina when she lived in this town" Naruto said with anticipation in his eyes, Woop Slap nodded and stroked his goatee.
"Ah ... Kushina I haven't heard that name in many years." Woop Slap said smiling but quickly dropped it in favor for a frown. "And she was a good for nothing brat that caused trouble for the people here. What good reason could you looking for such a person who got themselves killed?"
"Well, she is my mother." Naruto stated and Woop Slap and Makino's jaws drops whilst Luffy stares at them, confused by their reactions. Woop Slap spluttered for a few seconds before he regained himself and looked towards Naruto.
"Yes, with that attitude and looks there is no doubt that you are her child." Woop Slaps said as his eyes narrowed. "Well, it will be good for Makino to not be the only one to hold the burden for looking after Luffy."
"What do you mean?" Naruto says cocking his head to the side.
"Yeah, what do you mean Oldman!?" Luffy yelled, Makino who now had regained herself shook her head as she looked at both Naruto and Luffy.
"What he is saying is that you are related, your cousins." Makino laughed as she looked at the two boys.
"What! I can't spend my time here looking after a squirt like him! I've got other people to look for." Naruto said as he turned around and made his way back towards his boat. Luffy who was still in a stupor upon learning the new information of Naruto being his cousin snapped out of it and launched himself at Naruto's back.
"You can't leave, you have to tell me your adventures and show me how to do the same!" Luffy yelled as he landed on Naruto's back. Naruto who hadn't expected the contact landed face first into the dirt floor.
As Luffy rambled on about the stuff, Makino giggled whilst Woop Slap chuckled at Naruto's position. Naruto pushed himself off the dirt with Luffy also tumbling to the ground, he looked down at Luffy whose eyes were wide with wonder waiting expectantly to hear Naruto's answer. Naruto sighed as he stood and grabbed Luffy to help him stand.
"Fine I'll stay but only because you are my cousin, and I won't be leaving family behind like Wano." Naruto said conceding to Luffy pleading.
"What's WANO! You've gotta tell me Naruto! please!" Luffy once again pleaded, Naruto looked up at Woop Slap and Makino who were both chuckling over the situation. Naruto turned to Makino and mouthed 'Please help' to which she giggled and made her way over to the two of them.
"C'mon Luffy how about Naruto tells you about his travels at the bar whilst I give you something to eat?" Makino offered to Luffy who quickly nodded and ran off down the road towards the Party's Bar.
"Well, it'll good for you to be around Naruto longer than a quick visit, you are good company to be around." Makino said making Naruto blush as he stood up a followed beside Makino towards the Bar with Luffy running up ahead.
A Year Later
"A TOAST! To Luffy's courage and to our great voyage!" A man with red hair and straw hat yelled out whilst hoisting a beer in the air.
All the other men in the bar also hoisted their bears in solidarity and called out for more. Many of them started dancing and fighting over food in the bar whilst the man with the straw hat smiled.
"It didn't hurt a bit" Luffy responded to man with tears in his eyes from the cut that he had imposed on himself to prove to the man with the red hair and straw that he was worthing of going out to sea with them.
"You liar, you foolish Anchor!" The man yelled at Luffy who just smiled at him.
"I ain't afraid of getting hurt one bit! I'm going to become a Pirate and go on great adventures like Naruto!" Luffy yelled whilst standing on his chair.
"You a Pirate? Impossible! We call you anchor Luffy because you can't swim! you'll just sink!" The man laughed out.
"If I'm an anchor it doesn't matter if I fall overboard because I never will, and I'm also a great fighter my punches are as strong as pistols! I'm also being trained by Naruto who's the strongest person in the whole village!" Luffy triumphantly returned to the man.
"A pistol, eh? Is that so..."
"Are you doubting me!" Luffy barked.
"Calm down Luffy!" one man called out whilst dancing with others.
"Let's just have a good time!"
"Yeah! Pirates always have a good time!"
"The sea is vast and there's lots of islands to explore!"
"And best of all, Pirates have Freedom!" The last dancing pirates declared. Luffy looked at them with awe and excitement at the prospects that could be found with being a pirate.
"You guys shouldn't fill his head with crazy ideas" the man with the straw hat said to the other men.
"C'mon Capn' let's take him just this once."
"Yeah Capn' just this time!"
"Okay we can take him if one of you stay behind." The captain with the straw hat said, the other men all turned away from Luffy and started dancing again.
"Sorry Laddy you've been beached!" They said to Luffy and continued dancing away from their captain and Luffy.
"I thought you were on my side!" Luffy yelled at them, the captain just laughed and ruffled Luffy's hair.
"Maybe if you were ten years older then I'd give you a chance."
"You sound exactly like Naruto, Shanks" Luffy huffed sliding down in his seat.
"You keep talking about this Naruto fella, who is he?" Shanks questioned, intrigued by the person Luffy looked up to.
"Naruto? He's the best in the world! He's been on great adventures and has these cool abilities that no one in town has ever seen before!" Luffy yelled out with stars in his eyes.
"Really? Tell me more while you have this glass of milk." Shanks said pushing a glass of milk towards Luffy who quickly downed it with a 'thanks.' "See! A real pirate would never drink milk!"
"That was a dirty trick Shanks!" Luffy accused Shanks whilst pointing at him, but Shanks just kept laughing. "I'm getting tired of this!"
"Luffy ... the captain just doing what's best for everyone." A man in the corner said whilst lighting a cigarette.
"What do you mean Mr. First Mate?"
"The captain has to look after the safety of the entire crew and ship, being a pirate isn't all fun and games you know? And captain knows all about the dangers of the sea too. It's not that he want's to crush your dreams of being a pirate." The first mate said with a smile.
"Well I don't believe it! Shanks just likes to make me look dumb."
"Hey Anchor" Shanks called out from across the room.
"I told you!" Luffy yelled whilst pointing at him accusingly as Makino walked into the room with a new barrel of beer.
"Captain Shanks, I'm glad to see you and your crew are enjoying themselves." Makino stated with a smile as Luffy continued to bicker with Shanks. "Luffy would you like something to eat?"
"Yeah! Just put it on my treasure tab!" Luffy said as he jumped and sat on one of the seats at the bar.
"Treasure Tab? Look Boy, don't try to swindle the lady." Shanks chastised.
"I'm gonna become a pirate, find lots of treasure, and then I'll come back and pay her." Luffy stated with full confidence.
As Makino was about to reply to Luffy the bar's door swan upon and the bar went quiet. A young boy walked into the bar with an animal over his shoulders, he lifted it up and heaved it onto a table. Upon contact the table collapsed into a heap while the boy rubbed the back of his head and smiled towards Makino.
"Apologies Makino but dinner is here" the boy stated with a massive grin, Luffy who had turned around to see what the commotion was about immediately forgot about the food in front of him and leaped into the boy who easily caught Luffy.
"COOL! Naruto where did you catch it?" Luffy questioned Naruto who smiled down at him.
"Well, I had to walk up the mountain early this morning if I wanted to catch it by surprise but then spent the rest of the day just trying to catch it." Naruto responded. "And Makino I will fix your table when I get the chance."
Makino just smiled at Naruto and waved him off as Naruto took at the bar and asked Makino for a beer whilst completely ignoring Shanks and his crew who looked at him with stunned silence until Shanks coughed.
"Oh? I didn't see you there, you must be the people whose ship is docked at the pier."
"Ah yes that would be use" Shanks responded but still looked inquisitively at Naruto. "I feel like I've meet you before what did you say your name was?"
"Naruto, Uzumaki D. Naruto at your services." Naruto said with a theatrical bow.
"Monkey too!" Luffy piped in.
"Your brothers?" Shanks questioned while Naruto shook his head.
"No cousins" Naruto replied and Shanks nodded until he stilled for a moment and reached into his pocket for a small piece of parchment. He lined it up next to Naruto, after a few seconds his eyes went wide, and he fell back off his chair falling unconscious.
"CAPTAIN!" Shanks crew yelled as they ran over to their captain. As the crew fussed over Shanks trying to wake him up Naruto walked up to the piece of parchment that had an imprinted image on it.
"Oh, that's my mother" Naruto said looking at the image and turned to Shanks who was now waking up. "Why do you have a photo of her?"
Naruto looked at Shanks and his crew with cautious but was curious as to what would cause such a reaction from Shanks. He crouched down to Shanks level who was sitting on the floor and offered the picture back to him.
"She was on the same pirate ship that I grew up on" Shanks replied with a hushed whisper making Naruto's eyes go wide. Naruto stood helping Shanks up then turned to Luffy.
"Hey Luffy, can you give me and Shanks some space to talk please?"
"What! No, I wan-"
"Luffy please" Naruto said with a serious tone making Luffy subdue while taking his food to a different table closer to where the treasure stack was.
"So, how did you know my mother? Especially because she was on the crew of the Pirate King." Naruto said looking at Shanks who rubbed the back of his head.
"Well Kushina was like an elder sister to me when I was an apprentice on the Oro Jackson, she helped become a great swordsman and looked after me in my younger years. When I heard the news that about her sword showing up at Marineford I had to make sure it's true since I haven't seen her since she ran off an got married. which is a reason as to why I stopped at Foosha to check if she had returned to her hometown but since your here, I fear the worst." Shanks finished as his eyes darkened.
"She died saving my life if that makes you fill any better." Naruto said with a slight sense of bitter as he still blamed himself for his mother's death.
"Well, it is better that one of you are alive instead none of you alive. Makino!" Shanks called out getting her attention. "Pass that last bit of beer if you wouldn't mind."
As Makino was about to hand the bottle it Shanks the bars door was nearly kicked off its hinges as a large group of men entered with the one at the front having a distinct scar above his eye.
"Make way for the scourge of the mountains!" the scarred man yelled out. "Heh ... Heh, so you call yourselves pirates? Eh, first time I've seen pirates ... You look like a sorry lot to me."
"We're Mountain bandits." The man stated as he reached Makino in the bar not noticing Naruto who was sitting next to Shanks. "Don't wet yourselves. we're not here to bust up the place. Just sell us ten barrels of grog and we will keep injuries to a minimum."
"I'm sorry but we just ran out of liquor" Makino said slowly.
"Well, that's strange, then what are all these pirates drinking? Fruit Juice?" He questioned as he glared at Makino.
"It's true ... I just served the last of it." Makino said waiting for a violent outcome until Shanks offered the man the bottle that Makino has just given him.
"Here have this, I haven't opened, I feel guilty for us having drunken all the liquor." Shanks smiled at the man and still held the bottle out towards the man.
The bandit snatched the bottle out of Shanks hand and smashed it across his head with the glass and contents going everywhere.
"What do you take me for? You can't fool me! What good is one bottle of Grog?" The man said grabbing for his sword.
"I've killed 56 people and have a bounty of eight million berry with most people I've killed being fools like yo-"
"Higuma what have I told you about harassing people?" Naruto interpreted as he stood from his seat making some of the bandits back away.
"You brat, you better watch yourself or one day you'll get it."
"Get it? Like your scar, I seem to remember that that differently to you." Naruto said with a shrug making Higuma reach for his sword and swinging it at the glasses on the table and destroying all of them.
"Makino? do you have a broom so I can clean this mess?" Shanks asked making Higuma's eyes narrow.
"So, you like to clean coward" Higuma asked as he turned to leave but as he was doing so knocked over the tables destroying most things onto of them. "Farewell ... Cowards."
"Cap'n are you okay?" Makino asked Shanks as she started picking up the glass shards.
"I'm fine, no harm done." Shanks said as he waved her off.
"HAR HAR HAR, He got you good captain!" Shanks crew laughed whilst he joined in but Luffy looked at them with disbelief then looked at Naruto who was also chuckling.
"HE MADE YOU LOOK LIKE A WEAKLING! WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGHT HIM" Luffy yelled at Shanks in anger. "Sure, you were outnumbered but kind of man lets himself be treated like that! You're a disgrace to all Pirates!"
"When you grow up, you'll understand. Some broken glass and grog on me don't mean much. Needless killing doesn't make you a man." Shanks responded whilst Luffy shook his head and started to leave. "Hey where you are going."
As Luffy went to leave Shanks grabbed him by the arm and expected Luffy to also to stop but as Luffy continued to walk his arm kept getting longer making everyone at the bar do a spit take including Naruto who jumped from his seat and landed in front of Luffy.
"His arm is stretching!" Shanks yelled.
"Luffy you idiot!" Naruto yelled into Luffys face.
"It's not here!" Lucky Roo yelled out holding open an empty chest. "The Gum-Gum fruit we took from that enemy ship, Luffy you didn't eat a fruit like this?"
Lucky Roo held up a drawing of a round purple fruit with stem, Luffy took a look at the drawing and nodded his head.
"Yeah! I ate it for Dessert, it didn't taste good."
"That was the Gum-Gum fruit! The fruit of the devil, it's one of the secret treasures of the sea!" Shanks said taking over the position that Naruto was in. "If you eat it your entire body will becomes like rubber! And you'll never be able to swim for the rest of your life!"
"WHAT!" Luffy's jaw dropped at the revelation.
"You Idiot!" Shanks yelled again whilst Naruto just shook his head and made his way back to mountains to continue hunting not wanting to involve himself in Luffy's predicament.
'I hope Luffy will be alright with not being able to swim.' Naruto thought to himself as he made his way back to Foosha village from his 'hunting'. It saddened Naruto that he had to lie to Luffy and Makino about what he did when he was not in the village. What Luffy thought about Naruto's hunting was hunting wild game in the forests that bordered the village when in reality he would spend most of his time hunting criminals for the Goa Kingdom who would pay him for his work.
Although he hated the work Naruto the funds it provided would greatly help him later in his life. It was how Naruto had meet Higuma when an aristocrat of Goa had put a bounty on Higuma and a partner of his. Naruto had easily caught Higuma's partner but had been careless with Higuma who had managed to escape leaving Naruto to deal with the aristocrat who refused to pay bounty to Naruto because he hadn't caught both.
In these musing to himself, Naruto had wandered off his favored track and had gotten lost. Spending the next hour aimlessly working around till he could find something familiar he heard two voices conversing above the tree line.
"Oi! You two up in the tree which way is it to Foosha village I'm a little lost." Naruto called up to the tree, their was silence for a few seconds until two heads covered by the shade looked down at him.
"How you'd get here!?" One called down to Naruto who just sighed.
"Does it really matter I just want to get home" he called back up to the tree, the two heads just look at each other.
"He could be saying the truth" One tried to reason to the other.
"Or he could be here trying to steal our treasure" whispered the second head trying to hid the treasure part.
"Treasure!" Naruto called up eagerly while the second person was hit on the head by the first person. "If you don't tell me the way to Foosha village I'm coming up there and getting that treasure."
"Ah ... Ah ... It's that way!" the first head yelled and pointed away from the tree.
"And how am I supposed to trust that information" Naruto questioned.
"It's that way I promise, you just have to walk that way and turn left at the gorge!" The second head yelled down hoping it would be enough.
"Thanks!" Naruto smiled as he made his way away from the tree and in the direction the two heads had sent him.
As Naruto slowly made his way towards Foosha he started sprinting as he spotted a Boer up ahead. Before the Boer could even recognise its situation, it was stabbed in four different places to maximize death but have minimal blood.
Naruto took a step back to look at handy work as started dragging the boar to a shallow stream to wash his claws of the blood. Closing his eyes Naruto concentrated imaging a spiral of water to form from the puddle and into his hands, opening them he was greeted to the sight of a small stream coming from the stream and into his hand.
Grinning Naruto tried to form a mimic of his hand with the water, but suddenly it started shaking uncountably and eventually exploded soaking Naruto completely.
Laughing to himself Naruto noticed that the sun was about to start setting so he grabbed the Boer and put it over his shoulders and made his way to the quiet village of Foosha.
As Naruto made it to the village's pier, he could see the Red Hair Pirates packing as much as they could onto their ships, with Luffy and Shanks on the side talking to each other. As Naruto reached the pair, he heard the end of their conversation.
"Do me a favor keep this hat safe for me?" Shanks said placing his straw hat atop Luffy's head. "This hat means a lot to me. Promise that you'll give it back to me someday when you've become a great pirate."
Luffy looked down as he cried with Shanks looking up and spotting Naruto and making his way over towards him.
"Here, I think you'll have more use of this then me." Shanks reached into his pocket and gave the parchment with Kushina's picture to Naruto. "She would be proud of you Naruto."
"Thanks Shanks." Naruto said shaking Shanks hand. "Also thank you with giving Luffy a hand"
Smiling they both laughed at Naruto's joke as Shanks swung an arm over Naruto.
"You'll also be a great pirate in your own right Naruto, I can't wait to hear what you do alongside Luffy."
With that the Red Hair Pirates raised their sails and went out to seas with the tide. Walking up to Luffy and Makino the three watched Shanks and his crew become small specks in the distance. As they turned around a man ran from one of the buildings next to the pier.
"Woop Slap, Woop Slap!" The man yelled towards Woop Slap who gave him a questioning look.
"What is it Masuchir?" Woop Slap asked worried.
"It's ... It's the den den mushi we just got a call from Garp saying he will arrive tomorrow morning."
"I don't see the problem with that Masuchir."
"It's why he is coming Woop Slap, he's here for Naruto."
All looked to Naruto with shock and Naruto moved to go towards his boat that he had left to dock at the pier, Makino grabbed his arm with hard eyes.
"You not going anywhere Naruto, I'll explain it to Garp."
"No this is my battle to fight, would I be able to wait for him at the bar?" Naruto asked Makino who nodded her head.
As Naruto made his way to the bar all thoughts were rushing through his head, how did the Marines find out about him. Surely Kaido hadn't leaked the information but if he did why now of all times? Or maybe it was that girl he had meet at Louge town?
That was how he spent much of the night at the bar just drinking and going over why Garp of all people would be after him. Slowly the sun started creeping in as dawn broke and Naruto waited for his fate.
BANG*
The doors to the bar slammed open as Garp's imposing figure blocked most of the light into the bar.
"Uzumaki D. Naruto meet me outside now!" he barked and retreated into the streets, as Naruto left the bar much of the town was gathered around to see the outcome.
"When I heard about you boy, I came here straight away." Garp stated as his face was unemotional.
"Are you here to arrest me because Uzumaki D. Kushina was my mother?"
"HAHAHA ... when I heard that you were alive, I was overjoyed that my nephew was alive because I thought Kushina had died without anyone but here it seems that wasn't the case." Garp laughed as he ate a cracker and then turned to walk away.
"That's it!" Naruto yelled at Garp. "I thought you were going to arrest me!"
"Why would I arrest my nephew that hasn't done anything?" Garp asked making Naruto faulter. "Luffy come! From what I have heard you want to be a pirate and this will stop all that nonsense."
"Where are you taking him!" Naruto asked. Garp's eyes narrowed at Naruto before conceding.
"I'm taking him to Mountain Bandits to toughen him up."
...
...
...
"WHAT!" everyone in an ear shot yelled at the revelation.
"You can't take him! Me and Makino have done a fine job looking after him!"
"Well when I was here last time he hadn't heard of pirates and now he wants to be one! that's enough reason as is!" Garp barked back, which Naruto had to agree was true.
"Even if that's true, I'm not letting you take him without a fight." Naruto said as he crouched into a position to fight Garp who smiled at Naruto.
"I hope you can put your berry where your mouth-"
Just before Garp could finish Naruto seemingly flickered towards Garp at great speeds and attempted to punch Garp who step back to dodge the punch.
"You have to better than that brat but because you showed effort you get one more shoot at me." Garp stated with a maniacal grin.
Naruto gathering himself again got into the same position and went for the punch but missed Garp hadn't needed to dodge the attack.
"Boy that was horren-"
Garp's face flung back from the force of the invisible punch as gusts of winds nearly tipped people over in the street with Luffy looking at Naruto in awe as Makino held onto him for dear life so he wouldn't fly away.
"Now that Boy has promise!" Garp laughed out as a black eye started to form, Garp made his way over to Naruto who was panting from the effort it had taken to do the attack. "You are truly Kushina's Son. HAHAHA ... 'Fist of Love'"
Upon contact from the attack Naruto fell unconscious and was grabbed by Garp who put him over his shoulder band then turned to Luffy who was hiding behind Makino.
"Thank you for looking after him for these past years Makino." Garp said as he grabbed Luffy by the cheek and made his way towards the mountain leaving a confused Makino in his wake.
"Who's this Ace you keep talking about Grandpa?" Luffy asked trying to escape from Garp's hold on him.
"He's going to be your older brother." Garp replied to which Luffy tried to bite his fingers that he was being held by.
"No! I've already got Naruto Grandpa."
"Well, I'll guess you'll have two then." Garp responded as he grabbed Naruto from his shoulders.
As they came to a clearing there was an old looking outpost with two long swords at the front and a watch protruding from the middle.
"Dadan get out here!" Garp yelled knocking on the wooden door, and three people worked out. One was a larger woman who seemed to be the person named Dadan another a large man and finally a small man that seem to be wearing a turban.
"M-Mister Garp! You gotta give us a break! Ace is already ten years old." Dadan tried to plead to Garp.
"He's already more than we can handle" the smaller man added on.
"Who's those kids that are with you? Is one of them your grandson Garp - I mean Mister Garp?"
"All right I'll let you pick. either you spend the rest of your life rotting in a pigpen or you raise them, Naruto basically looks after himself anyway." Garp reasoned as he dropped Naruto to the floor like a sack of potatoes. "You realize how many of your countless crimes I'm turning a blind eye to?"
"Well, I don't want to go to jail but sometimes I think I'd be better off!" Dadan argued. "We already have our hands full with Ace! Now you want to give us two more!"
As Dadan and Garp were talking Luffy had walked up to Naruto to try and wake him up by shaking him until spit flew and hit Luffy in the face, a second later it was about to happen to Naruto, but he put a finger up and pushed it away.
"AGH! Spit! Yuck" Luffy said in disgust and looked at the person who had done it. "Hey! Who are you?"
"Oh, that's Ace" Garp replied nonchalantly.
"You're back Ace" Dadan asked surprised.
"He's three years older than you Luffy and three years younger than Naruto." Garp said introducing the boys to each other. "From now on you'll be living together. Make sure you get along with him."
"You mean it's already decided" Dadan asked dreading the answer.
"Got a problem with it?!"
"No! We'll be glad to look after them."
Naruto who was still laying on the ground just shook his head and closed his eyes hoping that when he would wake up again we would be anywhere but here.
Notes:
A new chapter! I hope you enjoy it, feels great to be back writing once again so hopefully I'll be able deliver more chapters, but we will have to wait and see.
I Enjoyed this chapter but hope that it was close to how reading the manga but not a carbon copy. I believe there was enough variation so you're not ready the same thing.
Thanks for the reviews love reading the positives and the feedback I feel is used to make a better story.
Thanks